238.-240.

238 – Break the moulds of the past, but keep safe its gains and its spirit, or else thou hast no future.

239 – Revolutions hew the past to pieces and cast it into a cauldron, but what has emerged is the old Aeson with a new visage.

240 – The world has had only half a dozen successful revolutions and most even of these were very like failures; yet it is by great and noble failures that humanity advances.

What does Sri Aurobindo mean by “great and noble failures”?

The greatness and nobleness of an event do not depend on material success, but on the feelings which inspire it and the goal which men have pursued.

It is not success that confers greatness but the motive of action and the nobleness of the feelings which inspire it.

18 December 1969